“Doing something for his daddy,” Brian choked out. “No big deal. He was happy to help.”
“You lured him outside. Drugged the dogs protecting him. Where is he now?”
“With Santa.”
A smarmy reply that saw him slammed into the wall a few more times until he blubbered. “This isn’t my fault. The kid brought it on himself. If Miguel hadn’t spooked him in the first place, I wouldn’t have died, and everything would have gone off without a hitch.”
“Meaning what?” She’d never spoken so dully, so coldly. Marduke cast her a glance.
But she focused on Brian. A man she should have never gotten involved with. A loser she’d given one too many chances.
“I owed money, and they wouldn’t give me any more pills without payment. So I found something they wanted.”
Her eyes widened as it occurred to her what he admitted. “You sold our son for drugs?”
“They were just going to borrow him for the weekend.”
She punched him.
Right in the nose. It broke. It bled. Brian cried, and she didn’t care.
She’d hauled off to hit him again when Marduke growled, “What’s your death have to do with the boy now?”
“Apparently, Gitmo”—the name of the fake Santa drug dealer who’d died that night— “claims the debt is still owed with interest, given how it turned out.”
Wham. Marduke hit him this time, and Brian didn’t get back up.
A chill filled her that no heat of Hell could fix.
“Oh no. No. No.” She paced. “How could he do this?”
“They can’t have gone far. Come. We’ll find him.” Marduke scooped up the puppy and shoved it into his pocket then held out his hand, and she clasped it.
As they exited the stairwell, Marduke whistled and called the hounds by name. “Terror and Poe, Merlyn and Goshen. Stupid and Dumbass, and I guess you, too, you smelly fucker Roisin.”
The Kennel Master must have some kind of magic because, despite having left them locked in their rooms, the hounds answered his call. They flowed down the street, slavering and slobbering, their red eyes wild. Frik and Frak, a little slower and groggier, brought up the rear of the pack.
Marduke whistled at the old pair and pointed to where they’d left Brian. “Take him to the prison, and you don’t have to be gentle about it.”
She’d have sworn the dogs smiled as they went about their task. She shut her ears to the screams that erupted. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy.
Wild-eyed, Marduke bared his teeth, and for the first time, she saw the demon as he said, “Now we hunt.”
21
